‘Silly Old Bear’

Deep in the The Mount Junior School’s wood, among the tall trees in a large clearing, sat a small golden bear, wearing an old red t-shirt. Describe the bear? He is ‘chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff!’
“Winnie the Pooh”, shouted all the children as they gathered around, before settling down around the fire circle.
“Oh bother, think, think, think,” said Pooh.
“What’s wrong Pooh?” the children enquired.
“I’ve got a funny sort of buzzing in my ear,” said Pooh, shaking his head from side to side.
All the children giggled. “Oh no Pooh, you haven’t been trying to get honey from the bees again have you?”
“Usually a buzzing only means one thing,” said Pooh smiling, “today I think my brain is trying to tell me something. Pooh rested his chin on his hand and thought very carefully. “I think,” he said pausing, “I think something special is going to happen.”
“Oh we know what,” said the children. The children explained to Pooh that Sunday 18 January is Winnie the Pooh Day, a special day to celebrate all that is special about Pooh and his friends.

Pooh looked disappointed. “I don’t suppose I can eat a special day,” grumbled Pooh.
“Silly, old Bear,” the children laughed, “of course you can’t.”
“Oh stuff and fluff,” sighed Pooh, “and I’m rumbly in my tumbly.” The children asked Pooh where his hunny pots were. “The Heffalumps stole them and hid them all over the wood.” Pooh explained.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find them. We all love hide and seek games,” the children announced.

Hunny pot waiting to be found

Quickly the children split themselves into groups and each team was allocated a Winnie the Pooh wearing a different coloured t-shirt. The children raced off into the woods to look for the matching hunny pots. They searched high and low, in the bushes and under logs and soon all of Pooh’s precious hunny pots were returned.

Suddenly there was a rather excited shouting from one of the bushes. “Honey! Oh boy, honey! That’s what Tiggers like best.”
“Oh bother,” said Pooh.
A rather exuberant tiger bounced around the fire circle, singing, “Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, the wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers are wonderful things.” Of course, all the children joined in with a spot of bouncing.
“Oh Tigger, where are your manners”, said Piglet joining his friends in the circle, much to the delight of the children. “Oh dear. Oh d-d-d-d-dear, dear,” Piglet stammered, “Do you think the children will be alright, because it’s f-f-f-f-freezzing today?”
“However,” said Eeyore as he trudged into view, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”
“I didn’t notice you here,” said Pooh.
“That’s alright,” said Eeyore as he sat down. “Nobody ever does.” Soon Pooh, his friends and the children were all busy looking at Pooh’s hunny pots and swapping stories about Heffalumps and Woozles.

From high above the excited crowd, from the branches of the large Oak tree, came a rather intelligent voice. “Well I say now, has anyone asked them yet?” The children looked up to see owl. “As I was saying, has anyone asked them yet? It will be getting dark soon, because the sun will be going down and we have such a long way to walk home and I’m far too important.”
Pooh coughed loudly, in a sort of, I’m very important sort of way. “Asked us what?”
“A-A-A-Asked the children if they can help us,” whispered Piglet.

Pooh’s friends explained that the strong winds earlier in the week had damaged their houses. They had quickly mended the damage but then, later in the week, another storm had come along and damaged their houses again. The friends were going to ask Christopher Robin to help, but unfortunately, he was in London visiting Buckingham Place. “Oh bother,” added Pooh.

A shelter for Piglet

The children offered to show Pooh and his friends how to build secure shelters, shelters that would stand up to everything except hurricane winds. Pooh reassured them that would be perfect because no-one could ever remember a hurricane visiting the Hundred Acre Wood! So everyone disappeared and soon there were small groups all over the woods building small shelters. Shelters in the trees and shelters under bushes. Each shelter was carefully constructed to the highest standard and Pooh and his friends watched carefully, making notes and occasionally saying, “Oh I see,” or, “That’s how you do it.”

Before they knew it, it was time for everyone to return home. Pooh said good-bye affectionately to his pots of honey and the children; and he and his friends went out into the woods on their way home.
“We’ll be friends with the children forever, won’t we, Pooh?” asked Piglet.
“Even longer,” Pooh answered. And the children set off back to their classroom to enjoy a sandwich before going home, a honey sandwich of course!

Winnie the Pooh Day is celebrated on 18 January every year, on the birthday of author A.A. Milne. A big thanks to A.A Milne for his help with this blog post!